Though she repeated that to herself, her body’s trembling didn’t subside. Her heart stung as if pricked by thorns.

“Do you feel wronged, Empress? Then blame yourself for choosing the wrong side. Though……”

The Emperor stopped speaking and smiled faintly.

“I don’t know if even wh*res have pride.”

Lucretia, who’d squeezed her eyes shut, exhaled a trembling breath.

If she said even one wrong word here, the Emperor might use it as a flaw to drag her down from the position of Empress. No matter how much the head priest had directly pushed for this marriage, the Emperor was someone who could overturn everything if he set his mind to it.

There was only one thing she could say.

“I don’t feel wronged. Your Majesty.”

Lucretia spoke, acting as composed as possible.

“Before being Empress, as one of Your Majesty’s subjects, I dare not hold dissatisfaction with a high person’s will.”

“……Ha.”

A textbook answer through and through.

An etiquette instructor would have clapped if they’d heard it.

The Emperor, who’d let out a short hollow laugh, stared down at Lucretia intently.

Receiving that blatant gaze, Lucretia felt her heart beating madly.

Had she given the right answer?

Had I not offended the Emperor too much?

The Emperor was an unpredictable man. Perhaps he might decide that marrying once fulfilled the late Emperor’s promise and behead his bothersome bride.

The longer the Emperor’s silence stretched, the faster Lucretia’s heart raced. She couldn’t predict at all what thoughts lay behind those red eyes as they swept over her.

It was when Lucretia tried desperately to hide her trembling fingertips.

“How strangely prostrate you are.”

The Emperor muttered as if to himself.

Unable to gauge the Emperor’s intentions from those words alone, Lucretia stared at him blankly.

His blood-red eyes gazed at her for a while, then the Emperor twisted his lips.

“Yes. Actually, I like this attitude.”

Lucretia’s heart leaped.

The Emperor raised the corner of his mouth obliquely.

“I hate women who make my ears ring with their crying.”

His voice still carried contempt toward Lucretia. Openly, without any need to hide it.

“Then shall we do what needs to be done now?”

The Emperor lowered his head even closer.

Lucretia flinched in surprise and instinctively pulled back. Realizing she had committed an impropriety, she bit her lip.

However, instead of pointing out her rudeness, the Emperor wore a cold smile.

“With this attitude, we won’t look like a couple who just consummated their marriage.”

“Ah……”

“We need to pretend we’ve had our wedding night. After all, the damned imperial family is watching with wide-open eyes.”

Muttering irritably, the Emperor brought his face close. Their faces drew far too near.

Lucretia’s shoulders stiffened like stone.

“Relax, Empress. At this rate, it’ll look like I did something terrible to you last night.”

“……I apologize, Your Majesty.”

Barely managing to answer, Lucretia tried to relax her body.

A cool yet pungent adult scent reached her nose. Completely devoid of immaturity, thoroughly ripened.

Her body kept trying to stiffen at the frighteningly unfamiliar fragrance.

But she had to endure it. If she kept flinching like this, as if the man before her were some kind of monster, she might truly offend him.

However, Lucretia’s efforts scattered the very next moment.

The Emperor’s fingers touched her hair. Lucretia swallowed her breath. After lightly disheveling her hair, the Emperor moved his hand downward.

“Ngh……”

At the fingers touching her lips, Lucretia held her breath.

The Emperor rubbed her lips with his fingers. When he applied slight pressure, her soft pink lips crumpled as they were pressed. Between her forcibly parted lips, her crimson tongue showed faintly.

“Your Majesty……?”

Lucretia mumbled with slightly distorted pronunciation.

What on earth was this situation? When she barely managed to look up at the Emperor, he suddenly withdrew his hand after staring intently at her lips.

“You mark easily, don’t you?”

Looking down at the lips he had just been playing with, now slightly more flushed than before, the Emperor raised the corner of his mouth.

“They swelled right away.”

Why would he suddenly touch my lips……

‘Ah.’

The words about needing to pretend they’d had their wedding night.

And the touch that pressed her lips until they swelled.

Understanding the Emperor’s intention, Lucretia’s face flushed instantly.

If she appeared with lips like these after spending the wedding night, everyone would think the newlyweds had shared rough kisses from morning.

“This won’t be enough.”

Saying so, the Emperor headed to the nightstand and took out a paper knife from it.

Unable to grasp his intention, Lucretia only watched, then soon her eyes widened.

“Your, Your Majesty!”

Red blood droplets seeped from the Emperor’s palm where he had cut himself.

Lucretia jumped up in surprise. At the thought of seeing blood from the imperial body, her mind became confused.

Stanch the bleeding, no, my healing arts……

As if mocking the flustered Lucretia, the Emperor approached leisurely and placed his palm on the bedsheet.

Drip, drip, bright red blood trickled down in drops and stained the white bedsheet.

“Ah……”

Lucretia stared blankly at the scene. Again, she grasped the Emperor’s intention a beat too late.

In an instant, red flowers bloomed on the bedsheet.

“This seems like too violent a night.”

Looking at the sheet dyed crimson, the Emperor tilted his head.

He turned to Lucretia and smiled broadly.

“The maids will pity you.”

At his words blatantly mentioning the wedding night, Lucretia’s cheeks turned truly red this time.

※※※

News that the imperial couple had safely completed their wedding night permeated throughout the entire palace.

The Empress’s Palace maids blushed as they glanced at the Empress’s swollen lips and reddened cheeks after she had spent her wedding night.

Draping a gown over Lucretia’s shoulders, Clara whispered.

“The Marquis will be very pleased.”

“……”

“You know, don’t you, Miss? That Master has high expectations of you.”

Clara spoke in a small voice so the maids wouldn’t hear.

Expectations.

What exactly did Father expect of her?

Surely he didn’t truly hope she would wrap that man around her finger and control him. Could he truly be dreaming such an absurd dream?

If so, those expectations were thoroughly shattered. Contrary to everyone’s expectations, the current Emperor and Empress hadn’t even consummated their marriage.

And in Lucretia’s mind, the Emperor who had neglected her even on their wedding night would never come looking for her later.

Her prediction soon became reality.

After the wedding night, the Emperor never once visited the marital bedroom.

Not after one day, two days, or even a week.

Finally, after ten days had passed, the impatient Marquis Zepher personally visited the Empress’s Palace. Bringing his youngest daughter along.

“What kind of scandal is this?”

As soon as all the maids left, the Marquis roared.

“The Emperor hasn’t visited the Empress even once since the wedding night!”

“Just how much did you disappoint him, Lucretia? In just one night?”

Her half-sister Eleonoa clicked her tongue looking at her as though she’s utterly pathetic.

Venom burst from her pink-tinted lips.

“Not serving His Majesty, not managing the palace household, just idly letting each day slip by. Do you think we put you in that position to feast and live comfortably?”

“Not managing the palace household isn’t my intention, Marquis.”

Lucretia explained quietly with downcast eyes.

“The handover from the Imperial Household Department hasn’t taken place. They say I need more time to adjust to the palace.”

“Nonsense. It’s been a week since you entered the palace, what more time do you need? ……Wait.”

Marquis Zepher frowned.

“Count Johannes is the current power in the Imperial Household Department, isn’t he? Hmm…… Now that I look at it, that young brat seems to be trying to check me, standing behind you. Using such shallow tricks. Ha!”

“How laughable. They’re just salaried underlings anyway.”

Eleonoa sneered. The Marquis glared at Lucretia with fierce eyes.

“Listen well. The palace’s internal affairs are ‘our’ domain. No matter how much the Imperial Household Department struggles, it’s our rightful domain that they can’t take! You must never be pushed back by them. The Johannes family has been clashing with our family for a long time, so you must never let them look down on you!”

“Yes, Marquis.”

Still looking down only at the tea table, Lucretia answered.

“I’ll have to visit the Imperial Household Department head separately. But you must never neglect your duties as Empress. Most importantly, capture the Emperor’s heart somehow! That’s your first duty.”

“……Yes.”

“You haven’t forgotten the methods I told you about, have you? Men are simple. Even if he wears an imperial crown, a man is still a man. If you work your charms, he’ll eventually fall.”

“Actually, if the person herself had appeal, such tricks wouldn’t even be necessary.”

Eleonoa took a sip of tea while blatantly looking Lucretia over.

“Well, what bad luck for His Majesty the Emperor. The bride he finally welcomed turns out to be such a block of wood.”

Lucretia secretly bit the inside of her mouth. She wasn’t unaware of the regret for the position she couldn’t claim that lingered at the end of Eleonoa’s words.

Would it have been possible with Eleonoa? If it had been Eleonoa who became Empress instead of her, would the Emperor have visited the marital bedroom even once?

Looking at Eleonoa’s well-groomed, gleaming blonde hair, Lucretia found herself thinking such thoughts.

“Get close to the Emperor by any means necessary. If he doesn’t come to you, who will put the Emperor in your bed if you just wait quietly!”

The Marquis clicked his tongue, saying she was hopelessly inept for someone who grew up without.

Soon the Marquis and Eleonoa rose from their seats. The maids, including Clara, hurriedly followed the departing pair as if they were the owners of this room.

“Take care, Marquis. Miss Eleonoa.”

“Remember this.”

Glaring at Lucretia who was seeing them off, the Marquis said.

“If you can’t capture the Emperor’s heart right away, at least be annoying like a gnat. You need to hover around him so the Emperor will at least glance at you once.”

The Marquis grumbled. He was annoyed that he still had to teach her such basic things.

He didn’t know how much effort and bribes had gone into pushing Lucretia into the Empress’s Palace.

When the marriage contract between the late Emperor and the Zepher family was first brought up, the current Emperor, Kyrion, wouldn’t even listen.

The only thing that could stop Kyrion, who wielded absolute power as soon as he ascended the throne, was the temple.

‘The amount I stuffed into that pig of a high priest’s mouth alone exceeded the family’s annual budget.’

The high priest, who had agreed to be in the same boat, invoked the sacredness of imperial promises and strongly urged Kyrion to uphold the late Emperor’s pledge.

No matter how much of an Emperor he was, it was difficult to ignore the high priest’s strong insistence in a country where religious power was strong.

This was the position of Empress’s guardian secured with such difficulty. Marquis Zepher was confident he would reap double, even double of double what he had invested.

“Make sure to make your presence known as much as possible. Depending on your efforts, you may receive a reward or punishment at this month’s family council.”